In various mill operations, for instance the production of reinforcing bars, elongated elements are received in bundles. The elements are usually not perfectly straight, and when a bundle is broken open they often lie somewhat across one another in a nonparallel somewhat random array.
The standard machine for separating out the rods from such a random assortment is described in German patent document No. 1,452,072. It has an elongated upwardly V-shaped bed into which the bunch of elements is dropped. A plurality of conveyor elements engage across the bottom of the bed at a height calculated to be that of one of the elements and sweep up the side. Thus in theory at least two of the elements will catch on the lowermost rod and it will be pushed up through the pile atop it to the top of one of the sides of the bed, whence it will be dropped down onto a second conveyor.
With such an arrangement it is possible for some of the conveyor stops to catch on one rod and some on another so that one or both fall off. When an element is not caught all along its length it can fall back down into the bed, so that the straightening or coating machine downstream does not receive a workpiece for at least one cycle. It is also fairly common for an element, in particular when it is fairly bendable and elastic, to catch at the top of the machine and jam up or fall over with the next element.
Thus with such devices it is standard to have to sort the elements and keep a close eye on the separation operation. Any jams must be cleared manually, and excessively curved workpieces must be culled out and fed manually at the end.